Water Plan a start but Govt must ban dairy expansion

Monday 8th Oct: Greenpeace is welcoming the Government’s fresh water work plan as a good step towards clean rivers but
criticises it’s lack of immediate action to stop increases in cow numbers and pollution.

"The plan is good news for our rivers in the long-term but it is completely missing interim measures to stop further
pollution." says Greenpeace freshwater campaigner Gen Toop.

"There are already too many cows for our waterways to cope with. Yet there are new dairy farms being built and existing
farms are still adding more cows."

"The Government needs to ban new dairy farms and end any further livestock intensification immediately."

12 people were recently arrested in the Mackenzie Basin for protesting the construction of a new mega dairy farm, which
plans to put 15,000 cows on fragile land just south of Lake Pūkaki.

The conversion is expected to leach tens of thousands of kilo’s of nitrate pollution into the vulnerable glacial rivers
and lakes in the catchment.

Plans for more Irrigation and intensification of dairying also threaten to pollute, and potentially irreparably damage
Te Waikoropupū springs, among the clearest waters in the world.

"Some of our most precious and fragile catchments, like the Mackenzie Basin and Te Waikoropupū springs, are in imminent
danger of more pollution from more cows."

The plan states that there will be "targeted action and investment in at-risk catchments, from now". However, it is
unspecific about what that action will look like.

"70% or our rivers are too polluted to swim in, three quarters of our native freshwater fish are threatened with
extinction, and nearly half of our lakes are eutrophic. This is an environmental crisis which demands urgent action, and
that’s what this plan lacks."

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